Personal anecdote on shipping
I was just wondering why that might be. I'm studying abroad in NZ right now and earlier in the year I needed a snowboarding coat. I had my eye on a specific one by Roxy, the one designed by Torah Bright (an Australian snowboarder on the Roxy team). Because it's got a name attached to it I knew it would be more expensive than some plain jane perfectly workable coat, but hey, it was *pretty* !
In the one store in Dunedin that I found the coat in, it was retailing for over NZ$450 (so maybe closer to US$350-400). In some shops in Queenstown, it was a similar price (though, oddly, didn't come out for a few weeks- I say oddly because you think Queenstown, being a big destination for skiers/boarders/tourists with money, they'd be the first on the trends and first to get supplied by the companies). I go online just look at specs and I found it through a US retailer for US$145 (around NZ$180). However, they do international shipping but they can't ship my Roxy coat to NZ- none of the limited edition Roxy, anyways. They didn't ship Burton, and a couple other lines, I remember. I ended up shipping the coat to my house in Maryland (free shipping withing the US including alaska and hawaii) and then having them send it down- though i had to wait an extra week and a half, the shipping was less then US $20.
I figured this was because: Roxy is an Australian company, so they can charge more in their home area?
or, because Torah Bright is more known here than in the US, they can mark it up? Because it's still likely to sell (I've seen about five women with my coat, and I know they probably mainly bought it for the looks/name as well- it's only a 10k waterproof coat, it's not that crazy amazing), while in the US it'd be harder to sell it- as opposed to, maybe, a coat by Shaun White, from California. well, Shaun white pretty much blows everyone out of the water internationally, maybe he's a bad example, haha.
But if the US retailer did ship the coat in it's cheaper price to NZ, Roxy would be losing money- if you can get away with selling it for over $400 dollars in NZ you might as well, but if in the US it will only sell at less than $200 then you'll take what you can get.
I was thinking about this because I was on Ravelry following a forum topic about international shipping. I don't really know enough about trade agreements between NZ and the US, I do know that there is a free trade agreement between the US and Australia but I can't really say much on it.
In the one store in Dunedin that I found the coat in, it was retailing for over NZ$450 (so maybe closer to US$350-400). In some shops in Queenstown, it was a similar price (though, oddly, didn't come out for a few weeks- I say oddly because you think Queenstown, being a big destination for skiers/boarders/tourists with money, they'd be the first on the trends and first to get supplied by the companies). I go online just look at specs and I found it through a US retailer for US$145 (around NZ$180). However, they do international shipping but they can't ship my Roxy coat to NZ- none of the limited edition Roxy, anyways. They didn't ship Burton, and a couple other lines, I remember. I ended up shipping the coat to my house in Maryland (free shipping withing the US including alaska and hawaii) and then having them send it down- though i had to wait an extra week and a half, the shipping was less then US $20.
I figured this was because: Roxy is an Australian company, so they can charge more in their home area?
or, because Torah Bright is more known here than in the US, they can mark it up? Because it's still likely to sell (I've seen about five women with my coat, and I know they probably mainly bought it for the looks/name as well- it's only a 10k waterproof coat, it's not that crazy amazing), while in the US it'd be harder to sell it- as opposed to, maybe, a coat by Shaun White, from California. well, Shaun white pretty much blows everyone out of the water internationally, maybe he's a bad example, haha.
But if the US retailer did ship the coat in it's cheaper price to NZ, Roxy would be losing money- if you can get away with selling it for over $400 dollars in NZ you might as well, but if in the US it will only sell at less than $200 then you'll take what you can get.
I was thinking about this because I was on Ravelry following a forum topic about international shipping. I don't really know enough about trade agreements between NZ and the US, I do know that there is a free trade agreement between the US and Australia but I can't really say much on it.